How to check the checksum md5 etc

**coffeemonster** · 06-06-2008, 11:53 PM

Sorry to sound dumb but I'm quite lost on this one.

I've searched the forum for "checksum" "md5" "med5sum" and "download faq" but can't find what I'm after.

I've got another problem which I'll cover in a seperate post but before I start rambling on in that one, its been suggested in previous posts about general running and installation of distros to run some sort of checksum check on it.

So far, as a board n00b and a converted linux techy, I'm quite lost.

I don't want to start rambling on and someone straight away shout at me for not doing what ever this checksum check thinggie-ma-bob is.

I've downloaded Operator Linux but there are no other files that come with it besides the .iso

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance
CM

**Harry Kuhman** · 06-07-2008, 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by coffeemonster

......I've searched the forum for "checksum" "md5" "med5sum" and "download faq" but can't find what I'm after.....

See the first paragraph and answer #1 here, which should give you the information that your searches somehow missed. However, this is a Knoppix forum. I have no idea what Operator Linux is, where you got it, or where you should get proper md5 files for the ISO. One would hope that they were posted the same place that the ISO was, but you post implies (although doesn't come right out and say) that the file is not there.

**coffeemonster** · 06-07-2008, 01:41 AM

Thanks for your reply.

Operator is a Knoppix spin off for security professionals.

I tried downloading it again and burning it at "oh my god im going to die before this finishes" speed.

Unfortunately, that still didnt work

Another issue I've come across that doesn't directly relate to my problem is that I've seen LOTS of posts that say "read the Downloading FAQ".
I've searched for that very phrase and the results don't bring anything up of any use.

Possibly if posts were to actually link to the Downloading FAQ or make it a Sticky in the "General" forum would save a lot of problem maybe?

Anyway moving away from that... I still can't get it to run

It "may" just be the architecture of the EEE PC that Operator doesn't like.. may not even be compatible.. who knows.

**Harry Kuhman** · 06-07-2008, 02:09 AM

As to posting a link to the Downloading FAQ. I prefer to let people know how to find all of the FAQs. If I give them a link to the downloading FAQ I too often see them coming back asking for a link to the Cheat Codes FAQ or the Networking FAQ or some other FAQ. So I prefer to tell them how to find all of the FAQs.

As to sticky posts, we have actually trimmed a lot off the site that were cluttering things up. They had a use a few years ago when the wiki was under a transition and not available for posting, but in general we want to encourage people to put important information in the wiki, not in "sticky posts". And the sticky don't get the attention they merit anyway, as seen by the amazing number of people who ask questions that they do address, such as the root password question. If people can't find the DOCUMENTATION link on the top of every forum page, they just might miss a sticky post in one of the forums.

As to "oh my god im going to die before this finishes" speed, your need for immediate gratification may be a bit too high. I don't like it either that drives that supposedly can burn DVDs at 12x or 16x or CDs at 48x or 52x or even 56x actually don't do a very good job of burning at those speeds, but I've learned the hard way that that is a sad truth. I've burnt very literally thousands of CDs and DVDs and have come to the conclusion that everything I burn will be burnt at slow speed, which for me is usually 4x. It's not great, but the alternative is far worse.

As to EEE PC issues, I don't have a simple answer, but "who knows" is rather a strange thing to say. I would expect that you could find a lot of information about the EEE PC architecture on the web, and that you could very quickly determine what, if anything, Linux distros do to support this hardware. You very well could have a compatability issue, I don't know if you do or not. But this is certainly something that you likely could find pretty quickly with a few Google searches and a little reading. You might also want to try booting that disc you made on some other computer, which as far as I can tell you have not done.

**coffeemonster** · 06-07-2008, 08:41 AM

Thanks again for the reply and for the direction.

I found the download faq but still unsure as to why it didn't show up on the search results. As most people with a bit of know-how would just search for something if it wasn't immediately obvious as to where it was.
Anyway, the info in the download faq was informative but didn't rectify the problem.

I also agree that burning cd/dvd's at slower speeds is and should be second nature so to speak. the "oh my god im going to die before this finishes" statement was in jest as I know, unfortunately, too well how writers can miss things at higher speeds through the countless coasters that i've produced over the years.

I know what the architecture of the EEE PC is and what hardware it has inside in addition to the system requirements of Operator/Knoppix and both, on paper, are compatible, however there is something that Operator just doesn't like.

Both distros would work quite happily on the EEE PC but Operator just doesn't and i'm finding it difficult to track down why.
I have tried Operator and Knoppix on a VM which work just fine.

**Harry Kuhman** · 06-08-2008, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by bobowoo

Err, just a noob question, why use MD5, why not use CRC-32?

There are other checksum techniques available, and the torrent download also comes with a sha1 checksum file. But md5 is both popular and sufficient. CRC32 isn't strong enough, both the number of bits and the way it's computed would allow for some very small chance of false matches. MD5 is a 128 bit hash. If you understand large numbers you know that 2^128 is a large number, much larger than the number of stars in all of the galaxies in the Universe, and more than adequate for this type of test. False MD5 matches will simply never happen by chance. There have been some Japanese researchers who have been able to counterfeit a md5 match by careful manipulation of the data set, but even this technique couldn't be used to corrupt a torrent download, as it uses it's own checksum on each sub-block of the file. That and a matching md5 of the entire file assure you that you have the proper original file and guards against any torrent poisoning.